The Maid Who Stole My Alpha

Chapter Two

(Daciana POV)

I stared at her, waiting for her to laugh, waiting for someone to say this was a cruel mistake.

“She said I knew too much about her secret meetings with Conri,” Ashina continued, and every word landed like poison in my blood.

I heard Bardolph growl, and the sound made the guards lower their heads as the room shook with his power.

Conri was the Alpha of the Northridge Pack, a dangerous wolf king who had once asked for peace and left with bitter pride.

I had met him only twice under council law, yet Ashina spoke as if I had welcomed him into my bed.

“That is a lie,” I said, but my voice was almost drowned by the elders murmuring behind Bardolph’s back.

Ashina lifted the cloth higher, showing the red stains like proof, though I had never seen that fabric before in my life.

“She cut her own hand and wiped the blood on this cloth before ordering me to deliver messages outside the border,” Ashina sobbed.

My wolf clawed inside me, furious and trapped, because the lie was so bold that even truth sounded weak beside it.

I looked at Bardolph, begging him with my eyes to remember every night we had shared and every oath we had made.

“Bardolph, look at me and tell me you believe this maid over your own mate,” I said, feeling my heart c***k with each word.

His face twisted as if my pain reached him, but Ashina’s soft cry pulled his eyes away from mine again.

That was the moment I understood the first part of her trap, because she had not only accused me.

She had made herself small, wounded, and helpless before a proud Alpha who hated seeing weakness crushed by someone he trusted.

Bardolph walked toward me slowly, and every step sounded like a door closing somewhere deep inside my soul.

“Where were you last night after moonrise?” he asked, and his voice was quieter than before but far more dangerous.

I swallowed hard, remembering how I had gone alone to the healing room because my wolf had felt pain near our bond.

“I was in the healing room,” I answered, though I suddenly knew nobody had seen me enter because the hall lamps had gone out.

Ashina gasped behind me, and I hated how perfectly she chose her moment to make my simple truth look like guilt.

“She told me she would say that,” Ashina whispered, and Bardolph’s shoulders grew tense beneath the weight of her words.

The elders began speaking at once, and I heard my name mixed with betrayal, secret letters, and danger to the pack.

Bardolph raised his hand, and the hall went silent so quickly that even the torches seemed to stop moving.

“Bring the box,” he ordered, and my heart dropped before I even knew what box he meant.

Lowell, one of Bardolph’s young guards, stepped forward carrying a wooden chest I had never seen before in my chamber.

He opened it on the stone table, revealing letters tied with black ribbon and sealed with the mark of Northridge.

My knees almost failed me, because each letter had my name written across it in a handwriting painfully close to mine.

“I never wrote those,” I said, but the room had already begun to choose the lie because the lie had objects to hold.

Bardolph picked up one letter and read silently, and his face hardened with every line his eyes crossed.

When he looked at me again, the mate bond between us burned like a rope being pulled through fire.

“You planned to give my border routes to Conri,” Bardolph said, and his voice was not asking anymore.

“No,” I whispered, stepping toward him until the guards blocked me again with their arms and lowered eyes.

Ashina began crying louder, but I saw her fingers tighten around the cloth as if she were holding back victory.

I wanted to scream that she was lying, but I knew screams only made innocent women look wild before frightened men.

So I lifted my chin and looked at every elder, every guard, and every servant who had eaten under my care.

“Someone placed those letters in my room, and someone is using your fear to break this pack from the inside,” I said.

For one second, Farkas looked away from Ashina and studied the letters with a frown that did not belong to a convinced man.

Then Bardolph spoke, and whatever hope I had left shattered beneath the weight of his next words.

“Until the truth is decided, Daciana will no longer sit beside me as Luna of Blackfang,” he said.

The hall went silent again, but this silence was worse because it sounded like everyone had heard my heart fall.

I stared at him, unable to understand how a bond blessed by the moon could be pushed aside by one maid’s tears.

“You are removing me because of her word?” I asked, and my voice broke no matter how hard I tried to hold it.

Bardolph’s eyes flashed with pain, but his mouth remained cruel because pride had already taken the place of love.

“I am removing you because my pack comes before my heart,” he said, and those words killed something soft inside me.

Ashina lowered her head, but not fast enough to hide the smile that touched her lips like stolen blood.

Bardolph turned to the guards, and I knew the next order would decide whether I was still his mate or already his prisoner.

“Take her to the old servant wing,” he said, and the hall gasped because even accused Lunas were not placed among maids.

My whole body went cold as I realized Ashina had not only stolen his trust; she had stolen my place in my own home.

The guards reached for me, but I stepped back before their hands could touch the mark Bardolph had once kissed.